Nicole schreibt...

Once more I had felt oddly reluctant to go to London, especially after two people I was keen on seeing announced being out of their respective shows, but I also felt like I couldn’t let my friend down who I was spending the Saturday with. So, needs must and eventually I was really glad I did go – in the most gorgeous imaginable spring sunshine and on an Eurostar that ran smoothly again (and without any fuss whatsoever about the new ETA thing the Brits introduced). I was even back at my old Hub in Kings Cross on the “model train set side” overlooking the station, where I could finally admire the massive complete building of Google I’ve watched go up over the years. With little to do after arrival, I walked a little around Kings Cross first, then poked around my favourite bookshops in the West End before simply crashing in Green Park for an hour to enjoy the warmth and sunshine (reminding me how nice travelling to London in summer can be, when you can actually just enjoy the parks for some hours). My first theatre stop was, perhaps surprisingly, the Lyric Theatre and Hadestown. After the vast disappointment of the original cast in London I had gone to see it again on Broadway and thought I was done with it – which was also sad in itself, since it’s still my favourite contemporary show by several miles. But London seemed to have realized their mistakes and started casting proper West End talent rather than ticking PC boxes and when they cast two of my current favourite performers – Desmonda Cathabel as Eurydice and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt as Persephone – I knew I wanted to see them. Well, I got at least 50% of my wish because Victoria was out, but ultimately it didn’t matter, because the London cast had overall improved by leaps and bounds including finally a properly diverse company with people from all over the planet that even included two regular white women. One of which was Victoria’s understudy Michelle Andrews, who combined the grandezza of a fading Hollywood diva with the very physical performance of a proper dancer, including doing the splits in her big “Lady of the Underground” number and while I would have loved to see Vic, I am also happy to get to see this interesting version of Persephone. Another understudy was Juan Jackson, who was making his debut as Hades that evening and did a fine job, although he might want to tone down that smile. While it did sometimes come across as sharky and evil, overall he just looked too nice for the morose Lord of the Underworld (and the physical resemblance to Barack Obama, that monster of positive charisma, didn’t help). Cedric Neal was okay as Hermes and I am glad they cast the role male, but once again I can’t help thinking that this role just needs the gravitas of an older performer like André and Lillias in New York. Which leaves the two young leads – Desmonda was everything I had hoped for, catapulting herself into the top spot as my favourite Eurydice even and a fast improvement over the sullen former first cast and her godawful northern accent. While sometimes looking eerily like Eva, Desmonda found so many new nuances in acting the part and sang the shit out of it, making me happy I bothered. And after the truly abysmal performance of the Swedish understudy I was subjected to twice in London, Dylan Wood was finally a truly great and very goofy Orpheus (perhaps a bit too goofy in Act Two) and the two of them had amazing chemistry. If the Amsterdam production is as awful as I presently fear it will be, I might just be back to the Lyric Theatre one final time to go out on a high (and see Victoria’s Persephone) with my beloved show. For now I’m just really glad that London has found its mojo with a great cast. One thing I think I seriously underestimated in recent years was weather. I was in London either in winter when it’s cold, rainy and abysmal anyway or in summer when it was unseasonably cold, rainy and abysmal. I cannot remember the last time I moved through London leisurely without being damp and frozen and so next morning after a slow start at the hotel I went back to Green Park to just bask in the sunshine and read and took it easy, asking my friend to meet me there as she was coming on the tube from Euston anyway. We went to a love icecream place in The Yards, which may be my new favourite place in the West End anyway, a pedestrian oasis of moderate peace amid the insane tourist scrum of Covent Garden, where we could catch up over proper Gelato. It had been almost more her wish than mine to see Titanique at the Criterion, the utterly mad campy spoof of the movie featuring some of Celine Dion’s greatest hits (and Celine as well). Reader, when I tell you that my Bête Noire of the West End, Jordan Luke Gage, blew me a kiss, after I gave him some money to save his ass, that’s all you need to know about the show. He played Cal, the odious greasy fiancé of a very sassy Rose (the wonderful Kat Ronney) and as long as he stays in his lane, playing pretty dumbos, he’s absolutely fantastic (as he proved before with Romeo), just keep him away from “scruffy lowlives”, he’s about as scruffy lowlife as Prince William. Another one shining when he sticks to what he does best, was Layton Williams, who did prove how he could win the Olivier for best supporting performer for playing … an iceberg. Rob Houchen, who normally plays Jack, was off, but his understudy Freddie King was so brilliant, I didn’t miss him, nor did I miss the first cast Celine, because her cover Kristina Walz was amazing, too. The whole thing is campy, smutty and whacky as all hell (come on, they sell eggplant-shaped stress toys!), it defies description and while I understand it’s not everyone’s humour, we had an absolutely brilliant time (along with everyone else it seemed). I also think that it really needs to come to Cologne between being Germany’s gay capital and broad daft carnival humour, it would be absolutely at home here. From an early high we went to a low, the ridiculous “German” Albert’s Schloss near Piccadilly Circus, that seemed to be based on an Englishman’s idea of German brewery culture after visiting a few horrible drinking places in cheap Spanish resorts on Mallorca or Gran Canaria. The currywurst was a joke. So stay away, unless you like the Ballermann feeling and don't care how your food tastes after too many beers. A better party was roaring at the Coliseum, where Broadway’s Great Gatsby had moved in, which I had already enjoyed in New York and didn’t mind seeing again here, especially with a cast of proper West End A-Listers led by Jamie Muscato, recently rather miscast as rakish Anatole, who has found his proper part being a brilliant Gatsby with a fantastic voice here. He was joined by Frances Mayli McCann, who proved that you can play Daisy without Eva Noblezada’s permanent whinyness, Rachel Tucker as Myrtle, Amber Davies as Jordan, Jon Robyns as evil Tom and John Owen-Jones as eviller Meyer-Wolfsheim, with American Corbin Bleu.joining as Narrator Nick. The lavish production was a 1:1 copy of Broadway and I could enjoy the sets even better from the front row dress circle this time, but I do believe the vast Coliseum, meant for opera and ballet, just manages to kill the vibe for any musical. Even this lavish production with a big cast still somehow seemed lost here and failed to get the same vibe across as its counterpart across the sea. So ultimately it was nice to see... but somehow it left me much colder than it had on Broadway, especially following in the wake of the most hilarious ocean liner ever. And there my quick trip ended again, but after being reluctant to go, I was really glad I did go, enjoying the shows, the company and the good weather that all combined reminded me why all these London trips are still rewarding. So bring on the big one in summer...